Differentiating Leeches and Nutrients



Following recent published conversation in which others point out that not all development is bad, I think a differentiation should be made. “Development” is not synonymous with “annexation” nor with “growth”. “Developers” is a term not wholly limited to those who would annex agricultural land, plat, scrape, create metro zones, sell on the strength of Longmont’s fine resources, dilute the value of our facilities to current residents, and bug out. These I shall refer to as land-leeches. But there are also developers who can take an existing situation within the city and make an improvement without growth; they include flippers who fix up a decrepit house to be a more habitable and presentable part of a neighborhood. These we shall refer to as city-nutrients.

There; leeches and nutrients, terms of useful distinction.